Remote Origins

The Bogong Centre for Sound Culture is a remote-regional cultural initiative situated in the foothills of Victoria’s Alpine National Park. Established by Philip Samartzis and Madelynne Cornish the Centre supports projects focusing on the processes and impacts of sustainable energy production; effects of climate change in wilderness areas; ethnographic studies of remote communities; the chronicling of vanishing industrial procedures; and systems of representation used to render natural and built environments.

Additionally, the BCSC facilitates a broad cultural program comprising, festivals, exhibitions, publications, master classes and artists’ talks focusing on site-specific art practices. These programs establish a connection with place, its inhabitants, geographic space and memory. They engage a wide range of audiences, bringing together local, interstate and international artists across multiple disciplines and fields to realise ambitious works.

The BCSC is situated at the newly restored old school at Bogong Alpine Village located 350 kilometres from Melbourne in North East Victoria.

About Bogong Village

Bogong Alpine Village is 325 kilometres North-East of Melbourne situated at an altitude of 800 meters in the Alpine National Park between Mount Beauty and Falls Creek. The village was established in the late 1930s to service the first hydroelectric scheme in mainland Australia. More recently it has become a popular site for alpine sports, recreation and ecotourism. Click here for directions.

A Short History

Work on the Kiewa Scheme commenced in 1938 with the construction of a road from Tawonga to the High Plains. Previously the only access was by foot or horseback along tracks that had been forged by cattlemen of a bygone era. Bogong Village was established once the road from Junction Camp was trafficable (March 1939); this paved the way for the construction of permanent buildings. Prior to that life was tough; large canvas tents and flies were used for sleeping quarters and smaller tents were set up to house the kitchens. By 1940 Bogong Township had grown considerably with a general store, staff offices, recreational mess, police station, and a variety of accommodation such as single men’s quarters and residences for married staff and families.

Bogong State School

In 1941 the Primary School at Bogong Village enrolled its first intake of students comprising nine pupils. Initially the school consisted of a large classroom, storeroom and boys and girls toilets. Extensions were carried out in 1944, which expanded the capabilities of the school. A library, storeroom, pupil’s lunchroom and shelter shed were added and rock gardens were established. By 1947 the number of students had grown to 46 all of whom were children of local SEC workers. Over the years class sizes fluctuated and the building remained unchanged. In 1980 it ceased to operate as a school and sat idle, eventually falling into disrepair. In 2004 it was sold along with many other buildings in the village.

Madelynne Cornish and Philip Samartzis bought the Old School and set about restoring it to its former glory. The rotting weatherboards and floorboards, smashed windows and flaking paint are now a distant memory. The newly refurbished building occupies it’s original footprint and bares a strong resemblance to it’s former self. Although the internals have been modernized remnants of it’s past history remain. The Old School once played a significant role in the fabric of village life. It inspired the community and helped shape the minds of those who studied there. It is our intention as custodians that the School once again functions as a place of inspiration.

Reference: Kiewa Kids School Days at Bogong & Mount Beauty by Graham Gardner

ISBN 0-646-36226-7. Published 1998

The Ecology of Place

This compilation CD was produced for The Ecology of Place spatial sound cinema project, which took place at the RMIT SAB cinema in Melbourne in June 2017. Included are compositions by Matthew Berka, Madelynne Cornish, Yannick Dauby, Byron Huang-Dean, Yan Jun, Slavek Kwi, Daniel Lercher, and Philip Samartzis. — providing a divergent set of responses to how we inhabit, engage and experience our environment and examine the ways in which ideas of place emerge, converge and re-form.

Rainy Season

RAINY SEASON is a collaborative project between Seijiro Murayama and Philip Samartzis mapping the course of the Shibuya River beginning at Shibuya Crossing and ending at Shinjuku Gyoen. The river is hidden by a series of roads and pedestrian pathways, occasionally appearing for short intervals before vanishing under sheets of concrete and asphalt. Within this sophisticated, highly mediated urban space, the sound field modulates between amorphous noise, concentrated events, spatial resonances, and discretely articulated gestures.

Handmade and riso printed

$15 AUD + postage

Wind Turbines

WIND TURBINES by Madelynne Cornish features sound recordings of two major wind farms located in Albany, Western Australia. While new sources of energy production such as wind are gaining traction throughout the world, their impact on landscape ecology is the cause of much tension and debate. This project examines the impact of renewable energy production upon a regional community by interrogating the wide-ranging effects incurred through the exploitation of the natural environment in the production of sustainable energy.

Topologies 1

This compilation presents an overview of commissioned sound works produced for the BCSC since its inception in 2010. Included are compositions by Christophe Charles, Byron Huang-Dean, Rosalind Hall, Geoff Robinson, Michael Vorfeld and Philip Samartzis — comprising direct responses to the ecology of the Kiewa Valley and its attendant infrastructure.

Handmade and riso printed

Limited edition of 150 copies

$15 AUD + postage

Current

CURRENT comprises two compositions by Philip Samartzis interrogating the technology and infrastructure of electric power generation. Flow, originally commissioned by Frequency OZ and Kunstradio ORF Austria, traces the containment and circulation of water through the series of linked power stations comprising the Kiewa Hydroelectric Scheme. Extraction is a collaborative work with Michael Vorfeld [DE] that posits sound recordings of the brown coal mines of the Yallourn Valley with improvised performances using electric lightbulbs, switches and relays.

$15 AUD + postage

Antarctica, An Absent Presence

Antarctica, An Absent Presence by Philip Samartzis. Antarctica is a paradox of the sublime and prosaic: with its vast expanses of ice, snow and mountains - and traces of human habitation, from weathered huts to abandoned machinery. It is a blank space bordered by nothingness concealing a confounding set of encounters for those fortunate enough to breach its frozen perimeter. This book is an invitation to share in a remarkable journey to a place that is for all intents and purposes simply incomprehensible. The publication is accompanied by two CDs of soundscape compositions documenting both natural and anthropogenic characteristics of the frozen continent.